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Cultivated Reef

Jared’s 365 challenge - new uns 40c


ef4life

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So I just started filling it up and my travertine back wall started to leak through on one of the vertical silicone seams holding it in place, too much moving the light around must have pulled it loose. Also this pump does not flow nearly enough water, so I’m going to have to upgrade that, I might just have to use a mj900 I have laying around. 

 

So tank is draining right now, then I’m going to re silicone that seam and Figure out if I can fit the mj900 in there or not.

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9 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

That stinks. One small setback though, you’ll have it filled and ready in no time. 

I put the mj900 in, and have it running with water in it. It’s perfect. Silent, but moves some water. Very tight fit in the back chamber though. I’m draining the tank again now, and I need to block off about half of my weir to get the water level where I want it in the back chamber.

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Having the lights off won't help much get established, especially the coral. If you're adding live rock with algae, you want the less hardy non-pest algaes to have enough light and nutrients to spread, so they can work on competing with the pest algaes. You'll get some algae surges on your new rock, but that won't hurt anything.

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Update time!!

 

so after yesterday’s disappointment of having to drain the tank and fix a few things, I just got done filling it up. It’s better today for sure, the travertine is so porous water will always leak through the wall to a degree, and it does but it’s not bad. Mj900/hydor combo has got really good flow in this tank there should be no need for any wavemaker in the display. I moved the power strip to under my bed and finished Velcro strapping all the cables together, easier access to the power strip now and safer from water spills. Win win

 

no longer do I have the removable weir, it was letting too much water through so the displays water level was too long. I had to trim the teeth about 1/4” shorter and siliconed the weir in place higher up in its channel.

 

i also superglued some small pieces of travertine to the rear chamber and cut a piece of egg crate to make a shelf to hold filter floss.

 

 

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18 hours ago, Tired said:

Having the lights off won't help much get established, especially the coral. If you're adding live rock with algae, you want the less hardy non-pest algaes to have enough light and nutrients to spread, so they can work on competing with the pest algaes. You'll get some algae surges on your new rock, but that won't hurt anything.

 

I always keep lights off to cycle dry rock, it’s a pretty standard way to do it. Let bacteria build up in the rocks and not pest algae on them. As for the gsp and mushrooms, that rock has been in the dark for 3 years and they are still alive. Gsp is white but will color up again. I don’t think you can kill red mushrooms.

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Tell me what you think of the aquascape. 

 

Also working on a simple auto top off with what I have laying around from the parts bin. A 1/4” bulkhead fitting, 1/4” water line, and 32oz Nalgene water bottle. A bead of silicone sealed up the bulkhead from any air leaks. Now I need to figure out a wall mount for this thing to hold it above the tank.

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Aquascape looks about as good as I think you're going to get with 3 rocks. Some bits of rubble around the edge, particularly on the right, might be good to kinda 'smooth' out the flow of it a little. Or corals are going to do that eventually.

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33 minutes ago, Tired said:

Aquascape looks about as good as I think you're going to get with 3 rocks. Some bits of rubble around the edge, particularly on the right, might be good to kinda 'smooth' out the flow of it a little. Or corals are going to do that eventually.

Thanks, yeah I’m not super happy with the rock on the right, I like it’s shape and they way it fits together with the other 2, but it has an old wavemaker magnet epoxied to the bottom which is why it’s elevated. I’m debating on cutting it off and smoothing the bottom a bit so it sits flatt on the bottom travertine, Or adding rubble like you suggest. 

 

Update-

tank has been cloudy this morning so I’m waiting for it to clear up before any more pictures. Also the ato I built isn’t working as planned, the 1/4” line is too small and mostly too long to let enough air into the bottle. I’m going to try a 3/8” line and fitting next before I scrap the idea and try something else.

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I like the love rock piece you have in there, its got some nice color! You could try breaking up one of the dry rocks to get some smaller pieces to work with if you aren’t happy with it. Im actually considering removing rock from my display to make it more “minimalistic.” 

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1 hour ago, Elizabeth94 said:

I like the love rock piece you have in there, its got some nice color! You could try breaking up one of the dry rocks to get some smaller pieces to work with if you aren’t happy with it. Im actually considering removing rock from my display to make it more “minimalistic.” 

Yeah the left rock was in my first tank I will have had running for 7 years this June, it’s been in the dark sump of my 40g tank for about 4 I believe, I wanted a good rock full of bacteria to start this tank off right. It’s got a nice little cave on the back side you cant see from the front but can sort of see from the side. I’ve always liked its shape but it never really had a place in the other tanks. I’m not really overly worried about the rocks shape either, I want this tank full of encrusting corals so my goal is to not see much of the rocks or travertine by the end of contest.

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I took the long way home from work today, so I could stop at the lfs kona reef. I wanted to see what they had for fish and inverts for the pico. I got a 2 scarlet hermits and 2 bumblebee snails, a tiny royal gramma, and a leptoseris and porites. Holding them in the 40g until I feel the pico is ready 

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Pico water has cleared up nicely today, trying to work on my iPhone picture skills but i still suck 😂

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I always loved the backlight on @Tigahboys pico tank, it really brought another dimension into the tank, so I decided to put one on mine. As a bonus it’s a nice subtle soft light for when I’m in bed and don’t want the full bright lamp on. 

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I forgot to post a picture of my royal gramma, he’s a little one about an inch long (or 2.5cm for you euro folks) looks very healthy, he is a shy little fish, all alone in my 40g sump and just sticks to one little area so I think he will like the pico when I put him in - in about a week.

 

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Aw, cute! 


He looks a little different than a royal gramma, though. Maybe it's just the lighting, but are you sure it's not a bicolor dottyback? If it doesn't have a black spot on its dorsal fin, it's a dottyback. The differences are pretty negligible, though, especially as a temporary solo inhabitant of a pico. 

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13 minutes ago, Tired said:

Aw, cute! 


He looks a little different than a royal gramma, though. Maybe it's just the lighting, but are you sure it's not a bicolor dottyback? If it doesn't have a black spot on its dorsal fin, it's a dottyback. The differences are pretty negligible, though, especially as a temporary solo inhabitant of a pico. 

Yeah you are right, it’s a dottyback after a closer look. No spot, and after some research it’s quite easy to see the difference now. 

 

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/02/10/whats-the-difference-between-a-royal-gramma-and-a-royal-dottyback/

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On 2/4/2020 at 6:07 PM, ef4life said:

Since this is an all in one challenge, I need to build the filtration area, and being a cheap budget build, I’m going with something I have laying around. Travertine tile. I quickly put a couple pieces through the wet saw  and built a wall, divider for the overflow and return pump area. And I cut a piece out for the bottom of the tank. I want to go barebottom with this tank and the travertine will hopefully give me a sandy bottom look until it’s encrusted with corals and coralline. 

 

Used a hot razor blade to trim the plastic rim where the overflow is going so I can build a media tray or something. 

 

 

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Lol I’m trying to stay cheap, then I just spent $150 on amazon for stuff😂

Awesome idea on the travertine divider! 

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Small update

 

i haven’t done much to the pico for the past few days besides just feeding a tiny bit of food every day. I did make a nice online order from cultivated reef that should be showing up Wednesday. The 40g will be holding those corals also until I deem the pico ready. Also I have a cleanup crew of mostly snails coming from reefcleaners to spread between my 3 tanks. I only have 4 snails in my entire 40g, and about 5 hermit crabs, and Only 1 nassarius snail in my 29g, nothing else besides the clowns 😅. I still need to figure out my ato or I might just save up and buy another duetto. Dottyback is eating and seems happy and healthy in the 40g sump so that’s good, and he’s become less shy and swims all over now.

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53 minutes ago, ef4life said:

I still need to figure out my ato or I might just save up and buy another duetto.

how do you like your other duetto? i had the plan of just topping my nuvo10 off by hand for a while...im about 2 weeks into cycle and its evaporating a little over gal per week. its getting old already haha. i originally planned for the tunze nano ato but have been seeing lots of bad reviews online. id also prefer the optical sensor offer a float switch anyways. 

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2 hours ago, nano_izzy said:

how do you like your other duetto? i had the plan of just topping my nuvo10 off by hand for a while...im about 2 weeks into cycle and its evaporating a little over gal per week. its getting old already haha. i originally planned for the tunze nano ato but have been seeing lots of bad reviews online. id also prefer the optical sensor offer a float switch anyways. 

I really like it, it’s tiny and quiet. I did have a few issues when I first got it,  2pumps burnt out but the company stood behind the product and sent me new pumps right away and it’s been fine ever since. I will say with my 40g, it’s a really really high stand, so I do have a lot of head pressure to pump water up to the display. They have an “ultimate” version with a different sensor and the ability to use a larger pump of your choice, I might get that for the 40 and swap the standard one I have to either the pico or 29g. The ato also learns how long the pump runs to fill up the tank under normal conditions and will stop filling/set off an alarm if it runs too long (like if your doing a water change and you forgot to turn it off or something, it won’t just keep running) 

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On 2/6/2020 at 6:10 PM, ef4life said:

Decided to build the overflow into the back wall today, a little cutting and grinding with the hand grinder made quick work of it. I Siliconed the 2 pieces of travertine together and now I have a removable overflow weir. It’s nice that it’s removable since I tend to break off the teeth when cleaning. Beveled the edges To keep water flowing as smooth as possible. 

 

I have an eheim 300 return pump showing up tomorrow hopefully, then I can drill the hole for the return line in the back wall and silicone my aio chamber into the tank. If all goes well, should be wet by Sunday. 

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Damn son

 

That's fancy as shit 😮

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NoOneLikesADryTang
On 2/13/2020 at 6:23 PM, ef4life said:

I took the long way home from work today, so I could stop at the lfs kona reef. I wanted to see what they had for fish and inverts for the pico. I got a 2 scarlet hermits and 2 bumblebee snails, a tiny royal gramma, and a leptoseris and porites. Holding them in the 40g until I feel the pico is ready 

Kona Reef? Are you in the Phoenix metro also? 

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